David Cox

Place: Birmingham

Born: 1783

Death: 1859

Biography:

Early Life and Training

David Cox

, a renowned English landscape painter, was born on April 29, 1783, in Deritend, Birmingham. His father, a blacksmith and whitesmith, supplied components to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother, daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath, had a better education than his father and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where he met fellow students Charles Barber and William Radclyffe. At 15, Cox was apprenticed to Albert Fielder, a Birmingham painter who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for snuffboxes.

Career Highlights

* In 1804, Cox moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth, and married his landlord's daughter, Mary Ragg. * He made his first trip to Wales in 1805 with Charles Barber, marking the beginning of numerous sketching tours throughout his lifetime. * Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805, earning a living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor, engaged him in 1808.

Artistic Legacy

* Cox is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters and a major figure of the Golden Age of English watercolour. * He painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now recognized as "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter." * Cox is an early precursor of Impressionism, influencing the development of landscape art.

Notable Works and Exhibitions

The Wind on the Heath (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, United States)
Cottage in Herefordshire (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, United States)
Junction of the Severn and the Wye with Chepstow in the Distance (Yale Center For British Art, New Haven, United States)
Moonlight Landscape (Yale Center For British Art, New Haven, United States)